can't import class for testing, gettin "can't read /var/mail"

Question

I'm attempting to solve this code challenge. Most urgently, Problem 1 is: I can't test my code as I can't get my class to import in Workspaces. I'm first typing " python morse.py " which is working, then "from morse import Character " and I'm getting the "can't read /var/mail" error every time. I saved the morse.py file in the outermost directory, under the OOP directory. I don't know what is the correct name of that directory. I was trying to manually change to it with "cd ~"

Problem 2: I don't understand what the purpose of the code challenge is. What is the program supposed to do? Is the parent class supposed to have a method that allows a child class to be created for each letter in the alphabet that outputs the Morse code of that letter?

Thanks

morse.py

class Letter:
    def __init__(self, pattern=None):
        self.pattern = pattern

    def __str__(self, pattern)    
        for item in pattern:
            if item == '.':
                morse = "dot"
            elif item == '_':
                morse = "dash"
        print(morse)


class S(Letter):
    def __init__(self):
        pattern = ['.', '.', '.']
        super().__init__(pattern)

Answer 1 · 2019-07-31T17:12:06Z

July 31, 2019 5:12pm

To problem 1: you have two typos in your code

missing colon in def __str__(self, pattern)
indent 3 instead of 4 in for item in pattern:

Additionally, the __str__ method probably should not have a pattern parameter. Instead, inside the method reference self.pattern. The __str__ method should return a str that contains all of the dots and dashes in the letter encoding. As written, it only "prints" the last dash or dot.

Problem 2: I don't understand what the purpose of the code challenge is.

The challenge is to explore:

creating a derived class from a parent class,
overriding a parents method with a local method, and
using super() to call the parent's method

What is the program supposed to do? Is the parent class supposed to have a method that allows a child class to be created for each letter in the alphabet that outputs the Morse code of that letter

As typical in trying to create an educational example, a contrived scenario may not seem practical, as s = S() could easily be written as s = Letter(['.', '.', '.']).

This does imply the application would be to create a class for each letter in the alphabet. May not be of much real value.

Post back if you wish more help. Good luck!

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Michael Sothan

Michael Sothan

can't import class for testing, gettin "can't read /var/mail"

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Chris Freeman

Chris Freeman

Michael Sothan

Michael Sothan